Discussion (25) ¬

WOOP WOOP!! I’m excite! This crossover is the reason I read Fans! and I ended up loving the characters and story… which only makes me enjoy the arc more now that I’m actually familiar with the other comic.

If I recall correctly it’s Rikk Oberf, Rumiko (Rumy) Tanaka, and Shanna Cochran? And the other characters probably also have them but I don’t remember them at all.

It’s been quite a few years now, but… Mostly confusing, at first, in the “who the heck even are these people and should I care about their soap opera suddenly intruding on the soap opera I’m already reading” kind of way. But it was interesting enough to draw me to Shortpacked eventually, and quickly decide that I needed to do another deep archive binge. (I think I started reading Shortpacked right around the time the Honey Bun went on a rampage, so you can see why.)

Originally posted:
April 19, 2003
Also,
Everyone in the world is superflous.
We’re all unique but every trait we have is not.
Caring about the void of infinite space doesn’t matter since it’ll never impact your, or anyone else’s lives for eternity.

Having originally started reading It’s Walky fairly late in its run, I always wondered what set Dina off on her series of self-destructive relationships. Now I think I know. It’s sad and tragic but it’s an unfortunate fact that some people never learn to socialise properly and, inevitably, it leads them to isolation and poor decisions.

I remember drafting scenes for Dina a few weeks before the crossover began and having you revise them to (slightly, subtly) make her a less valued and respected member of the team. I didn’t understand quite why you were doing that until I saw this strip and then it was “Oh. OH. Oh, Jeez.”

To me, this is classic Dina’s most raw and real moment, more so even than what came later. There are no plot mechanics for her to interact with here that would interfere with that feeling of isolation. She IS the plot. And while she’s had other outbursts, her flat affect can make her come off a bit emotionless or muted much of the time, which makes this climax a lot more effective.

Joe’s working for Professor Doc’s division and I’m not sure if there’s any defined boundary between his work and Dina’s. There should be, but it also seems weird that Dina can take time off at random to go work on her social skills, so maybe this is two wrongs making a right.

A lot of us unpeople people hold onto arts, academia etc. as our ‘redeeming’ feature. (Or ability to punch people, if you’re AG.) It took me years to learn nobody needs to ‘redeem’ themselves, the need to ‘contribute’ to society is bull, and then much, much later, that there’s no such thing as unpeople people, only differently-people people. Then you just have to find YOUR people and suddenly you’re good.